The first time I saw George Clooney was in the cloying romantic comedy, One Fine Day and the next year, he ruined my favorite film franchise with Batman & Robin. Naturally, I hated him for a long time. The Ocean's 12 & 13 movies didn't help either (I enjoyed Ocean's 11 though).
Last Friday, as I sat at the movies in Union Square and watched his latest film, Michael Clayton, I realized, George Clooney might be one of the most vital figures in cinema today.
Cinema at it's best, just like any other art, explores the human condition. But most of the filmmakers avoid the present day - it's monetary obsessions and plethora of technology - when doing this. They escape into the absurd (like Being John Malkovich or Fight Club), where they can define their own rules. Or they go to the past (like Gladiator or Saving Private Ryan), where the good and the bad are clearly defined.
The main reason for this is the subtility needed in the study of the human condition. You can't have the hero sit in a corner claiming to wonder about what it means to be human. The characters have to go through their lives with more immediate, pressing needs and conflicts. And in that process, through metaphors and allusions, the filmmakers have to bring out a larger theme. It is easier to do this with familiar motifs. A lone man on horseback riding into the horizon makes us feel a strong sense of solitude. Compare that with an image of a man sitting in his cubicle. Through our lives, we have been tuned to respond to certain metaphors and images. These films use that pre-conditioning.
The films that do stay in the present, to take advantage of these metaphors, position themselves in the fringes of modern society - places where the well established sensibilities can still resonate. In the wilderness (Brokeback Mountain), a prison drama (Shawshank Redemption) or a mobster drama (The Departed).
Meanwhile, the complexity of the modern world is left for the television genre shows - CSI, Practice, NYPD Blues & Grey's Anatomy. Shows that pack DNA testing, legal jargons and car chases as a way of being cutting edge. It's all about clever plots and melodrama for quick entertainment.
Very, very few filmmakers have taken on the challenge of confronting contemporary themes, creating new motifs and teasing viewers with fresh metaphors. These films are not easy to make and not easy to watch - hence not as rewarding to either the filmmaker or the viewer. Rather I should say, not immediately rewarding. Because, what happens is a widening of artistic expression and artistic interpretation. Which in turn provides a richer palate for understanding and experiencing our own contemporary times.
This is precisely what George Clooney has been doing in his films (the ones he acts and/or directs) - Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana, and The Good German. His new movie Michael Clayton is another step in that direction.
Michael Clayton takes an unflinching look at the conflicts we face, and the choices we make or the choices we get pulled into by the under currents of modernity. It doesn't gives us a hero who is invincible or virtuous (most heros are one or the other, think about it). We see a man who get by through his unscrupulousness but is still left with a strand of virtue that makes him pause, if only for a second. We don't get a villain who laughs hysterically. We see a woman practicing her press interview on her bed, like a kid practicing her first recital. We see her washing the sweat off her armpits in the bathroom, before signing a settlement.
The writing is unrestrained and yet taunt. The camera work and pacing make it difficult to stay engrossed, because they are unorthodox. But they serve a larger purpose and the attention it demands from the viewer is worth giving. All the characters and the acting are good, Tom Wilkinson is great.
It's seems like the writer-director Tony Gilroy got so scared of alienating his viewers too much that he chickened out at the end of the movie. Michael Clayton has such a typical Hollywoodish ending that even a talentless cliched filmmaker will be ashamed of. But inspite of not going all the way, Gilroy deserves a lot of credit for the distance he went. Hopefully, in the next lap, he or the next filmmaker can take things further.
Last Friday, as I sat at the movies in Union Square and watched his latest film, Michael Clayton, I realized, George Clooney might be one of the most vital figures in cinema today.
Cinema at it's best, just like any other art, explores the human condition. But most of the filmmakers avoid the present day - it's monetary obsessions and plethora of technology - when doing this. They escape into the absurd (like Being John Malkovich or Fight Club), where they can define their own rules. Or they go to the past (like Gladiator or Saving Private Ryan), where the good and the bad are clearly defined.
The main reason for this is the subtility needed in the study of the human condition. You can't have the hero sit in a corner claiming to wonder about what it means to be human. The characters have to go through their lives with more immediate, pressing needs and conflicts. And in that process, through metaphors and allusions, the filmmakers have to bring out a larger theme. It is easier to do this with familiar motifs. A lone man on horseback riding into the horizon makes us feel a strong sense of solitude. Compare that with an image of a man sitting in his cubicle. Through our lives, we have been tuned to respond to certain metaphors and images. These films use that pre-conditioning.
The films that do stay in the present, to take advantage of these metaphors, position themselves in the fringes of modern society - places where the well established sensibilities can still resonate. In the wilderness (Brokeback Mountain), a prison drama (Shawshank Redemption) or a mobster drama (The Departed).
Meanwhile, the complexity of the modern world is left for the television genre shows - CSI, Practice, NYPD Blues & Grey's Anatomy. Shows that pack DNA testing, legal jargons and car chases as a way of being cutting edge. It's all about clever plots and melodrama for quick entertainment.
Very, very few filmmakers have taken on the challenge of confronting contemporary themes, creating new motifs and teasing viewers with fresh metaphors. These films are not easy to make and not easy to watch - hence not as rewarding to either the filmmaker or the viewer. Rather I should say, not immediately rewarding. Because, what happens is a widening of artistic expression and artistic interpretation. Which in turn provides a richer palate for understanding and experiencing our own contemporary times.
This is precisely what George Clooney has been doing in his films (the ones he acts and/or directs) - Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana, and The Good German. His new movie Michael Clayton is another step in that direction.
Michael Clayton takes an unflinching look at the conflicts we face, and the choices we make or the choices we get pulled into by the under currents of modernity. It doesn't gives us a hero who is invincible or virtuous (most heros are one or the other, think about it). We see a man who get by through his unscrupulousness but is still left with a strand of virtue that makes him pause, if only for a second. We don't get a villain who laughs hysterically. We see a woman practicing her press interview on her bed, like a kid practicing her first recital. We see her washing the sweat off her armpits in the bathroom, before signing a settlement.
The writing is unrestrained and yet taunt. The camera work and pacing make it difficult to stay engrossed, because they are unorthodox. But they serve a larger purpose and the attention it demands from the viewer is worth giving. All the characters and the acting are good, Tom Wilkinson is great.
It's seems like the writer-director Tony Gilroy got so scared of alienating his viewers too much that he chickened out at the end of the movie. Michael Clayton has such a typical Hollywoodish ending that even a talentless cliched filmmaker will be ashamed of. But inspite of not going all the way, Gilroy deserves a lot of credit for the distance he went. Hopefully, in the next lap, he or the next filmmaker can take things further.
